Devastating US-EU trade pact would make genocide a legitimate business model

The United States and the European Union are negotiating a free-trade agreement they hail as mutually beneficial but in actuality would allow corporations to supersede countries’ sovereignty and legal framework, says Max Keiser of RT’s The Keiser Report.

The US and EU’s Trans-Atlantic Free Trade Agreement (TAFTA) aims to hand foreign corporations ways to evade domestic laws and courts while giving “them the ability to sue the countries for compensatory damages from the economies that they’ve just devastated,” Keiser told RT.

“It gives all the power to the entities that have destroyed the European economy, the big banks that have gutted the European economy,” Keiser said.

Closed-door talks for the agreement started in July and will ultimately create an “investor-state” system in which regulatory structures on both sides of the Atlantic are weakened for the “profit-seeking” motives of mainly American corporate entities.

“This gives extrajudicial power to corporations, to the investor state... beyond what is imaginable beyond the worst Orwellian nightmare,” Keiser said.

RT:An annual profit of 119 billion euros sounds pretty good and it could not come at a better time for the struggling European economy.  Why be unhappy about this deal?

Max Keiser: This is an unbelievable act of corporate hubris. They’ve invented something now – ‘the corporate state’ or ‘the investor state’ - so that corporations have the ability to override sovereignty, to override countries’ legal framework for profit-seeking or rent-seeking. To give you an example, you’ve got Chevron Corporation, which has been active in Ecuador, devastating the ecology there. Not only will they not be able to go after Chevron for damages, but Chevron can claim the fact that the Ecuadorians are going after them for damages means Chevron can sue Ecuador’s government for damages for being inconvenienced for the ecological holocaust that they’ve created in Ecuador. This is the most remarkably corporate-friendly, devastating, human-centric-non-benefitting law that I’ve ever seen in my life.

RT:But European corporations will make huge profits, too. And profits are taxed, aren’t they? Isn’t that exactly what governments want, income from taxation?

MK: Corporations are taxed less and less. Here in the UK, the big corporations that we know are taxed very little if anything. Very little of what corporations make and what the wealthy in the world make is actually taxed. That’s the taxable income, the reportable income. Most of the income they make is through offshore accounts, through special-purpose-entities accounts, it’s completely untaxed.

I don’t think we’re getting to the nettle of how devastating this is. This is basically a business model based on holocaust. This is like saying that the manufacturers of Zyklon B during World War II would sue the million or so victims that were exterminated with Zyklon B for having the nerve of dying for being gassed by the manufacturers of Zyklon B. This makes holocaust a legitimate business model.

This makes Monsanto’s genetically-modified seeds, which are causing widespread devastation across the world - not only can it cause devastation, but Monsanto can sue a country like India for the Indian farmers who are committing suicide. Because they inconvenienced them. This is the most devastating piece of legislation, pro-corporation in history that we’ve ever seen! It’s absolutely mind-numbing!

RT:What if someone comes to you and says, ‘Surely this means my job prospects in Europe are going to be improved.’ Why not let this deal go ahead? Because it’s my life, my life at stake at the moment and it’s a devastated European economy and I want a job to improve my prospects.

MK: Because it gives all the power to the entities that have destroyed the European economy, the big banks that have gutted the European economy. This now gives them the ability to sue the countries for damages they impose on these economies, for compensatory damages from the economies that they’ve just devastated. They can then get the governments to sue the citizens for more money after they’ve stolen the money. Imagine, for example, Goldman Sachs. They ransacked Greece, they stole billions from Greece. Now this gives them the opportunity to sue the Greek government for more compensatory damages. Then the Greek government has to go to the population for more money.

This gives extrajudicial power to corporations, to the investor state...beyond what is imaginable beyond the worst Orwellian nightmare. Whoever cooked this up - and I know who it is, by the way, Barack Obama. The most corporate-friendly, holocaust-, genocide-provoking idiot who has ever occupied the White House. He just threw the keys to these corporations and said, ‘Sue everybody you kill.’ It makes killing and genocide a legitimate business model.

RT:Surely Brussels will listen to what you have to say, they have those concerns. And they will surely make those laws protecting consumers’ interests, and, indeed, the environment from any invasive policies from the US.

MK: Some countries are pushing back against this, but unfortunately in this current era, with the NSA spying on every country - what happened to Angela Merkel in Europe? She said I don’t want the NSA spying on me. Now she’s laying down supine, just letting this new law which favors American corporations to roll over her like a little frau in the woods. Like Bambi in the woods, just rolled over. She should stand up for her citizens. She’s being completely duplicitous by saying, ‘We don’t want NSA, but we want this new law.’ So she’s been identified as completely duplicitous, completely in the pocket of American corporations.

There are some companies that are trying to push back. But, remember, with the NSA in power, with the US dollar as world reserve currency and the Federal Reserve Bank running the world’s economy, there’s very little recourse. And you’ve got extrajudicial killing, extrajudicial lawmaking. America has become a rogue state. America has become an outlaw state. These countries have to wake up or they’re going to find themselves an American-casino-gulag state where they’re just going to be thrown down into a dungeon and forced to trade online virtual games to make virtual gold for their masters at Facebook or some other virtual corporation or gaming entity or casino operator. It’s devastating!

The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.